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The National Institutes of Health has helped fund an array of extremely painful experiments on animals performed at foreign laboratories while also wasting our tax dollars. It should never have happened in the first place, but we have an opportunity now to stop it.

These experiments consist of horrific acts such as addicting dogs to opioids and rats to cocaine, force-feeding highly toxic substances to dogs, blinding and causing strokes in monkeys, removing the eyes of mice, electroshocking rats, wounding rabbits' vocal cords and crushing their spinal cords, infecting bats with highly harmful viruses transmissible to humans, infecting pigs and hamsters with parasites, forcing mice to ingest amphetamines and alcohol, and more.

The Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act (HR 4757) is a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Dina Titus and Rep. Troy Nehls that would ban the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding experiments on animals performed at foreign laboratories, offering technical assistance to foreign programs, and prevent such laboratories from receiving public money. More specifically, it would prevent the NIH from awarding “grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, or technical assistance” of any kind to any foreign entity for animal experimentation.

The CARGO Act would not, however, prohibit grants to laboratories conducting animal experiments within the U.S. That is an issue for another day. We must take this first huge step in calling on legislators to support the CARGO Act to defund foreign animal laboratories and put an end to this unjust waste of taxpayer money.

Between the decade of 2011 and 2021, the NIH awarded approximately $2.2 billion to 200 foreign organizations to fund 1,357 grants and contracts involving experiments on animals in 45 countries, including China and Russia. Despite this major investment of U.S. funds, NIH has no oversight into the inner workings of the foreign laboratories. It does not do the following: require inspections by any local regulatory authority, require laboratories to report violations of its own Public Health Service Policy Guide, require laboratories to have an institutional committee to review proposed experiments and ensure compliance with regulations, or require that third-party auditing organizations verify information provided by the laboratories.

This astounding lack of oversight has resulted in animal abuse that is blindly and unknowingly funded by the American public and taxpayer dollars are being wasted on foreign animal experiments. In addition to the extreme animal cruelty perpetrated by these experiments, it has been proven that experiments on animals overwhelmingly fail to lead to treatments for humans. 95% of new medications that test safe and effective on animals end up failing in human trials.

Urge Congress to pass the CARGO Act to stop wasting money and funding horrific animal abuse in foreign laboratories.

Letter to Decision Maker(s) for reference:

Subject: Cosponsor the CARGO Act to Save Money and Stop Extreme Animal Cruelty

On behalf of In Defense of Animals, an international animal protection organization with more than 250,000 valued supporters, I am urging you to support HR 4757, the Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act, introduced by U.S. Reps Dina Titus (D-NV) and Troy Nehls (R-TX). Every year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds foreign laboratories to conduct horrific experiments on animals without any oversight. Between 2011 and 2021, NIH doled out 2.2 billion taxpayer dollars to foreign animal experiments. The CARGO Act would prohibit the NIH from sending taxpayer money to laboratories outside of the U.S.

The passage of this act would prevent appalling acts, such as addicting dogs to opioids and rats to cocaine, force-feeding highly toxic substances to dogs, blinding and causing strokes in monkeys, removing the eyes of mice, etc. It would also save taxpayers billions of dollars. Not only are these experiments extremely cruel, but they are unnecessary and ineffective, as 95% of all new drugs that are shown to be safe and effective in animal tests fail in human trials. 

The CARGO Act will help illuminate the way for modernized, human-relevant methods while saving money. Please endorse HR 4757 today! I look forward to hearing back from you on this issue.

Sincerely,

Signed

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.